NATURAL HISTORY. In the following Lecture I beg leave to ask your attention to a few remarks on the Moral Uses of the Study of Natural History; in other words, the relations of the external world, the universe, to the moral nature. This topic has not the recommendation of entire novelty, for who that has written of man, and of all that surrounds him has omitted to notice his dependencies in a great many regards on what is about, and beyond him? By some who have treated the subject, however, the universe has been looked upon as a whole, or as addressing itself to the moral nature in its masses only, - by others its relations to man have been seen in its laws so called, the supposed agencies by which, so to speak, it is kept together, or its parts act upon each other; my purpose is, (for it is my belief,) to show that in whatever view, and in every view, whether in the smallest hand specimen of a mineral species, or in the congregated Alps, the external, alike in its vastness, and its minuteness, is related to the moral, is designed to act upon it, and for the highest ends. Now this view of my subject has not been the popular, by which I mean the general one; and the student of natural history, how much soever his intellect may have been helped by his studies, and their objects, has rarely regarded them as ministering more powerfully and usefully in the development of his affections, the growth of his moral nature. Natural history is the most comprehensive of studies. It includes in its widest acceptation the whole external world. What is the universe but a vast arrangement for the being, active or passive, of everything which we com - prise in that term. Not as we make things out of others; not as we give them form and place and change; but as they came into, and have continued in being. Growth and decay, - reproduction and disappearance, permanency and mutability in all their degrees and in all their kinds, whatever has been, or is, the past in its products, the present in its seeming persistency, such are the objects which belong to natural history. One then of its most obvious characters is its vastness. But everything in the universe is an individual. Everything in the important and distinctive sense of being, is exclusive, is independent, is by itself. A circle surrounds it more impenetrable than all that has been claimed for the magic one, for it is a real barrier, a boundary which by an immutable law of nature cannot be surmounted, by any other being, and by a law as remarkable as this, nothing attempts its violation. The works of the universe proceed in their silent ceaseless activity, everything kept in its place by itself, and by everything around it, and altogether making a whole. The universe is a whole; however numerous, however individual and independent each of its parts, its smallest alike with its largest; still together they make a whole. How humbling is human effort, however vast, when its works are regarded in this relation of wholeness. How abrupt are their edges, how interfering their angles, how awkward, and impracticable in what they attempt to do, or we try to do with them. Do not let us be stopt by that spinning jenny, or that steam engine, or that balloon, these are all things, in no sense are they ideas, they contribute in sooth to man's comfort, or gratify his curiosity, but how little do they minister to his moral or to his intellect? They have some relations it is granted to his physical state, not nature, but how little, how nothing to his highest, his moral being. With the universe how different in all thsee regards. This addresses itself in its parts, and in its oneness, to all eyes and to all hearts. We look on and admire and love all; but no jealousy comes over us, no discontent. The everlasting ocean, whether of water, of air, of light, is full of joy to us, and in its brightness and beauty seems to partake of that moral state to which it ministers, and which it does so much to produce. This sentiment of perfect satisfaction, to use such a APPENDIX. I AM happy in being able to offer in connexion with the foregoing lecture, two letters from esteemed friends, upon the same subject. They were read at the time before the Institute. The first is by one, who for thirteen years, has been an active member of the school committee, and who has thus had an uncommon opportunity of noticing the effects of moral instruction on the general improvement of our schools. The second is by one who has long devoted himself to the improvement of the young, and whose great success and philanthropic character are too well known, to need any mention here. BOSTON. DEAR SIR-In answer to the questions which you have proposed, as to any knowledge I may have of the effect of moral teaching on the character of a school, I reply, that from an observation extending over many years and a large number of Primary Schools in this city, I have invariably found, that just in proportion as a moral influence and discipline has been exercised over a school, a regard paid to the moral conduct of its pupils, and the moral tone infused, that there the government has been the easiest, the order the most perfect, and the improvement the greatest. I may add, that this is not a barren conviction, but that in consequence of it an effort has recently been made to introduce Ethics as a part of the course of instruction in our Primary Schools, and as a book is now in preparation for it (by Rev. Jacob Abbott) at the request of a committee of the board, we hope it will be crowned with success. Yours, very respectfully, LEWIS G. PRAY. SCHOOL FOR MORAL DISCIPLINE MY DEAR FRIEND- I have but a few moments in which to answer your inquiry as to the practicability of introducing the study of morals into our schools generally. All that I can say on this subject must be wholly from my own observation, as I am not otherwise much informed.. |